Tagged With chrome os

Google's annual I/O developer conference kicks off Wednesday, May 17 in California, and continues through the end of the week. We'll be on the ground at the show covering all the breaking news, but before then we're taking a closer look at what we can expect from this year's conference.

If you haven't heard, a lot of Chromebooks can run Android apps now, but not everything in the Google Play Store is going to make sense for your lightweight laptop — we're looking at you, Snapchat.Here are seven Android apps that are actually well suited to running on top of Chrome OS.

As capable as Chromebooks have become, there are times when you might need to load up Photoshop, iTunes or something else that relies on Windows or macOS. Not only can Chrome OS do this, it's not that difficult to set up...if you know the right plug-ins to use. Here's how to get started.

I was working on the new Samsung Chromebook Pro, furiously putting together a post that needed to go up. The final touch was an image, but I needed to edit it and didn't want to reach for my normal work machine. So I popped it open in the Adobe Lightroom Android app, flipped the screen around so the computer was in tablet mode, and pulled the stylus out from its holster in the side of the computer. I had my image edited and ready to go in less than two minutes. It felt completely natural, saved me a little bit of time, and hinted at exactly what the future of the Chromebook could be — genuinely good alternative to the fussiness of Windows and the priciness of MacOS.

Google knows who I want to email before I email them. It knows what I want to type before I type it. It even knows where I want to drive to before I drive. So it was only a matter of time before Google figured out what I wanted to write with my pen before I finished my pen stroke. And now Google's showing off this newest feat of machine learning in Samsung's next major Chrome OS laptops: The Chromebook Plus and Chromebook Pro.

Samsung may have been forced to recall the Note7, but that doesn't mean the company is just going to roll over and let the explosion memes kill it. There are other products coming down the line, like TVs, smartwatches and the inevitable Galaxy S8. According to a leak over the weekend, there might also be a sweet Chromebook in Samsung's future.

Android apps have arrived on Chrome OS. Right now they can be run on three Chromebook models, a number that will increase during the rest of 2016 and into the start of 2017 (Google has a full list). To save you the wait, we got hold of an Asus Chromebook Flip to show you how the Android experience works on a Chromebook.

Chromebooks are on the up and up. If you're using a laptop running Google's lightweight, web-based Chrome OS software, there are a bunch of hidden tricks you might not be aware of, from safely giving others access to your Chromebook to getting the newest features for the OS before anyone else. Here are 10 tips for becoming an expert Chromebook user.

Chromebooks may have started life as very basic laptops that were useless without an internet connection, but they have become more powerful and more useful with each passing year. Now, not only is it possible to run Linux on your Chromebook, you can access the operating system through a browser window.

You can stop regretting owning that ridiculously cheap Chromebook you picked up last EOFY. The guys over at CodeWeavers have worked out a way to run Windows on Chrome OS. That means Steam, Photoshop and a non-web version of Office could all be on your Chromebook very soon.

When Chrome OS first appeared, it was practically useless without an internet connection. Now, an offline Chromebook is no longer the functionless brick it once was because there are dozens of web apps with offline capabilities. Here's everything you can do today on Chrome OS without online access.

Eager to try out Chrome OS, but not ready to ditch Windows entirely? Thanks to the latest software package from Neverware, you can have both. By installing the company's CloudReady software, you can turn your Windows laptop into a Chromebook, and it's also possible to set up a dual-boot system using both operating systems.

Google just announced that Chrome OS will open up to Android app developers this June. Google hopes that within a couple months, apps will move to a stable beta release and finally work on Chromebooks this spring.

There are really good Chromebooks out there if you know where to look, and HP has made some very solid — if very cheap — options. Sadly their plastic clamshell Chromebooks still felt low budget in the face of quality devices like the Asus Chromebook Flip. But a new HP Chromebook shrugs off the failures of the past and looks towards a hopefully higher quality future.

Kids are great, aren't they? But you don't necessarily want them using all of the apps, viewing all of the websites, and tweaking all of the system settings that a grown-up has access to. Windows, OS X, and Chrome OS each have tools for creating child-friendly accounts — here's how to set them up.

Windows 10 can do it, OS X El Capitan can do it — and Chrome OS can do it, too. I'm talking about snapping windows to the sides of the screen to make it easier to compare apps and webpages. But if you're not familiar with the process on your Chromebook or Chromebox, then here's what you need to do.

In recent weeks you might've heard all about Cortana's integration with Windows 10, enabling you to run web searches, check your diary and toggle system settings by chatting to your computer. A similar kind of functionality is available on Chrome OS, with more comprehensive features on the way.

If you've picked up a Chromebook (or Chromebox), you'll know you don't get very much in the way of local storage — the system is designed for the cloud after all. Still, there are times when saving files locally is a good idea (watching movies offline for example) and you want to manage those handful of gigabytes effectively. Here's how.

Latency on your phone is annoying. But Google feels your pain — which is why it has this dedicated robotic rig, used to test out hardware and software in order to keep Android and Chrome OS devices zippy.